Cardiff Devils will be the first Elite League team to hit the ice this pre-season when they take on Gap from France on 16 and 17 August.
They begin a week ahead of Belfast Giants, Glasgow Clan, and Nottingham Panthers, who will all take to the ice the following week.
The Devils are in camp this week for the first time under new Head Coach Paul Thompson.
“Guys have been on their summer workout programmes, but now it’s good to hit the ice as a team. We play at the end of this week and have five ice sessions before facing Gap on Saturday,” said Thompson, who was announced as the new man behind the Devils’ bench in May.
“While a lot of it will be about conditioning, we’ll have a sprinkle of our systems, which will be new to the returning players and obviously new to the ones coming in.
“We’re looking to push them hard. Training camp is about trying to get the most out of players without picking up injuries, so they’ll have a lot of on-ice and off-ice workouts. It’ll be a really good test for them.”
The Devils are the first team to hit the ice for the new season and will have four full weeks of pre-season before their Challenge Cup campaign begins on 13 September. “I like the fact that we have four weeks and seven games within that time, as you can cover a lot of things,” added Thompson. “In some of the countries I’ve coached in, it’s been eight weeks. In Denmark, where I was before, it was more or less like this. It gives us a lot of time to work with the players.”
Photo: James Assinder
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